Leading off today: Section 8 is taking precautions against the potential of a H1N1 ("swine flu") pandemic by postponing five postseason events involving the Levittown School District, which closed 12 schools this week, Newsday reported today.

   "There was a recommendation by one of our superintendents, who spoke with the health department, that we postpone these events," said Todd Heimer, executive director of Section 8. "It's all about safety. And safety for our student-athletes is paramount."

   The start of the best-of-three series in the Class A baseball quarterfinals between Garden City and Division was postponed, as was Game 2 in the Class AA quarterfinals between Port Washington and MacArthur. In softball, a Class A playoff between Manhasset and Division and a Class AA game between Farmingdale and MacArthur will me made up later. In girls lacrosse, the Class B quarterfinal between Division and Plainedge was postponed Wednesday night.

   "We can't play any contests against the Levittown Schools until they re-open their doors on Tuesday," Heimer said, adding that no doubleheaders were planned in baseball or softball.

   That's why we have leagues: This one left me scratching my head and wondering what exactly they're thinking over in Section 3.

   The Post-Standard reports that athletic directors from the Onondaga League Liberty Conference had to clarify this week which girls lacrosse games count as league contests. With the final game of the regular season just two days away and division titles at stake, ADs admitted that some coaches thought the schedule counted only the second time they played teams in their own division as league games.

   The ADs say that all games played against Liberty opponents are league games.

   "I’ve been confused all season long,” first-year Westhill coach Theresa Masse admitted. "Everyone should have been on the same page with this, and I have no idea why they aren’t."

   And we're not talking about some small issue. Cazenovia coach Mark Evans thought his team was 8-0 and heading to an almost certain outright American Division championship. Instead, he discovered his Lakers are 11-2 and trailing Westhill by 1½ games.

   The root of the misunderstanding may be language contained in the Section 3 lacrosse handbook addressing long-standing criteria for determining tournament seeds. But Liberty ADs say they agreed a year ago that all games played against a Liberty opponent will be counted as league games. However, that was not communicated to all the coaches.

   “There shouldn’t be any confusion because we (ADs) set the alignment, we set the schedules and we set what is determined for the league championship,” Westhill AD Matt Whipple said. “It’s very unfortunate this is happening at this time because our precedent was set a year ago. It should have come out earlier, and why it wasn’t done sooner I can’t tell you.”

   I don't think I'm unreasonable in asking why all the games in a round-robin or a double round-robin wouldn't count under any circumastances. At the very least,

Spring tournament schedules NYSPHSAA boys lacrosse

counting only the rematch in league standings raises the possibility of unfair home/road scheduling.

   Hamburg doubles up: Hamburg became the first Western New York school to sweep boys singles and doubles championships at the Section 6 tennis tournament according to records dating to 1977. Matt Kane, who won the singles title last year as a junior, teamed with younger brother Tim Kane, a seventh-grader, to capture the doubles crown while David Yovanoff won the singles championship.

   The Hamburg reps cruised through four rounds without losing a set. They advance to the NYSPHSAA tournament May 28-30 at the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows.

   Back-to-back back-to-backs: Thor Miller, Joe Mancini, Dean Haussel and Matt Dunn homered consecutively in the first inning for Miller Place in a 17-4 rout of Sayville yesterday in the Section 11 Class A baseball tournament.

   Whoops: A Fonda man is facing charges of disorderly conduct after sheriff's deputies said he started a fight during his son's game at the Fonda-Fultonville baseball field yesterday, WNYT-TV reported.

   Deputies said George Sperow, 52, was intoxicated during the game and yelled foul remarks toward fans of the opposing team. They said a woman with a child asked Sperow to stop and it led to a fight with her husband.

   PSAL soccer update: The Daily News reports that New York City Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe was surprised by the size of a protest at City Hall related to the PSAL's intention to move girls soccer to the fall season.

   "I think the reality is that it would be difficult to find all the fields we need in the fall for both boys and girls soccer," Benepe said. "We're not exactly sure how we're going to meet that challenge."

   The protest was organized by coaches Bob Sprance (Forest Hills), Vaselios Sioukas (Townsend Harris) and Nicholas Punzone (Madison). Players from at least six schools showed up according to Sprance, an outspoken opponent of the move since the Department of Education announced it in January as part of a settlement that derailed a likely lawsuit by the New York Civil Liberties Union on behalf of three families.

   "They switched our season because of three girls, without asking any of the people involved for their opinion," Sprance said.

   A fall schedule would result in weekend games because of a shortage of fields, Sprance said.

   More soccer developments: Section 9 boys soccer coaches unhappy about playing championship games at the Hudson Valley Sports Dome in Milton are getting their wish. Sectional co-chair Tony Martelli told The Times Herald-Record that boys and girls finals and some state tournament contests are being moved to Middletown High School.

   Coaches complained about the dome's acoustics and lighting in addition to the 60- to 66-yard width of the field. Middletown's field is 75 yards wide.